On Monday, State Rep. Tom Conroy announced that he was abandoning his efforts to become the democratic candidate to challenge Republican Sen. Scott Brown for "The Peoples' Seat."

(To learn more about the history of this senate seat and the men who have previously held it, listen to the podcast in blue below.)

MassLive Politics Podcast: "The People's Seat"

Conroy said that instead, he will run for re-election to keep his seat in the 160-member Massachusetts House, and throw his support behind Elizabeth Warren.

To read the full report on Conroy's decision to drop out of the race, click here.

And on Friday, engineer Herb Robinson said that he was also dropping out the U.S. Senate race.

"It's obvious that Elizabeth Warren has sucked the oxygen out of the room as far as fundraising goes," Robinson said.

The Newton Democrat instead will attempt to become the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district, a position being vacated by the retirement of Rep. Barney Frank.

To read the full report on Robinson's decision to focus on the House of Representatives instead, click here.

Throughout the week, the political action committee Crossroads GPS and its sister organization American Crossroads, both conservative groups backed by Republican strategist Karl Rove, lashed out at Warren over potential support by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The conservative group, which has announced a multi-million dollar ad campaign against democratic senate candidates in key states around the country, charges that if Warren receives money from the DSCC, she is a hypocrite.

“Far left professor Elizabeth Warren should get a PhD in hypocrisy for trying to launder Wall Street political cash through the DSCC’s war chest while simultaneously leading the Occupy Wall Street movement,” said American Crossroads president Steven Law in a press release sent out Tuesday afternoon. “Professor Warren ought to put the DSCC’s Wall Street money where her mouth is: and just say no to DSCC support.”

Ending the Defense of Marriage Act was just one point the democratic senate candidate touched on as she denounced bullying and general discrimination against lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
To read Warren's full post titled Protecting and Promoting Equality, click here.

And on his official election website, Brown released a new video with his family, minus his 14-year-old shih tzu Snuggles, to wish Massachusetts residents a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah.

In the two-minute video, Brown, his wife and daughters all offer well wishes for the holiday season and a little insight into their Christmas traditions.